Facial Recognition
by Basched
Summary: John Casey has taught his son how to recognise the people in his life. Takes place before my story Three Months. Part of the DEVON CASEY SERIES. Total Jellie. My verse!


_Author's Note: I didn't know where this came from! I guess, after reading some Chuck fics I wanted to write something. I thought of doing another chapter of The Colonel Vs The Sister, but I wasn't in the right mood. I wanted to do something funny and suddenly this popped into my head. It took me less than two hours to write and I'm quite pleased with it. _

_This takes place before my story Three Months. Please do enjoy the Jellie- fluffiness! _

_**Facial Recognition**_

Ellie came back from work one afternoon and was greeted with the wonderful sight of her husband and son sitting on the sofa, surrounded by an almost endless sea of photos. She recognised a lot of the photos of herself, her husband and other members of the family, but she was a bit concerned when some of those photos seemed to contain military men.

She dropped her bag by the kitchen and then slowly walked over behind the couch, where two of her three favourite men were having a father/son bonding moment.

"Hi." she said, skimming her fingers round John's neck. There was a deep contented purring growl from the older man who then turned his head to the side to catch her fingers with a welcoming kiss. "What are you boys doing?"

"We're looking at pictures." said John, jiggling the little boy on his knee and waving a photo of what looked to be one of a very young Casey and another soldier grinning as they smoked cigars together in a victory celebration. "I'm teaching him how to recognise important members of our family."

"Hon…your buddy Ed isn't…"

John held up a finger, cutting Ellie off, but the proud smile that drifted across his face when he held the photo up in front of their son's, just beamed.

"Ssh…wait until you hear this though. Dev…who is this in the picture with Dad? Do you know?"

The little dark haired three year old grabbed hold of the photo with tiny fingers and then even smeared one over the man standing arm in arm with his father. The boy smiled and poked the man in his bearded face.

"Porky!"

"Hey!!! Atta boy!" John gave him a big squeeze and then let the boy hold the photo even longer. "You know who Porky is, don't ya?"

"Dad's friend!"

"Good lad and what is he?"

"A hero!"

"Well done!"

Ellie had to smile at that. Major Ed "Porky" Rawlins was a good man, John had spoken of him hundreds of times and Ellie had even met him on a couple of occasions…finally finding out why he was called Porky. But in her opinion it should have been John that was called it. Her face blushed.

She did like that John was active in trying to teach their son faces and names, especially with their jobs, it was important to know what people he knew and could trust, in case anything happened.

"What about this one?" asked Ellie, picking up a photo from the floor just next to her. She handed it over to Devon who still clung to the picture of "Dad and Porky" in his other hand. The little boy's eyes widened and smiled.

"Granddad!"

Ellie nodded. It had been a while since her father had been round to call, in fact Devon had only been a few months old, but there were reasons. As there always were in this family.

"Okay…here's the test." said Casey, waving for Ellie to come and sit down next to them. As soon as she did, she let out a relieved sigh, the fatigue from working at the military hospital was just too much. Yet she brightened up when Devon scrambled off his father's lap and sat on hers.

"You're testing him, John? He's three."

"Never to young to learn." he said, picking up random piles of photos from the floor and shuffling them like cards. "It is important to him and I know he can do it! It will be impressive."

"Very well." Ellie snaked her arms round her son's body and hugged him as John held out the first picture. Instantly recognizable, the man was impossible to mistake, especially with the donut in his hand.

"Fat Mike!" laughed Devon, clapping his hands.

"BIG Mike." John corrected.

"Fat Mike!"

"BIG Mike!"

"Pastry man!"

"He knows who he is…that's the point."

Ellie tried not to snigger, but she had to hide it as a kiss into the back of Devon's head. John noticed and sneered disapprovingly. It was only when Ellie gave him a snarl back that that handsome smirking smile crept to his lips.

He continued to show Devon some other photos, of which he identified perfectly and Ellie was impressed that their three year old could recognise so many people. General Beckman he still insisted on calling Genny and when the picture of the handsome MI5 agent was shown all Devon Casey could reply with was "Beefcake." He identified some of Ellie's friends from the hospital, the neighbours (she noticed it was only the neighbours that John trusted) and of Sarah.

"Walker!"

"Her name is Sarah, Devon." said Ellie, who shook her head as she realised what John had done. "Her name is Sarah."

"Walker!"

"John! He is not a marine or a military officer, why can't you teach him to call Sarah by her forename rather than just Walker?"

"Force of habit. I don't call her anything else." Ellie frowned and John held up his hands in protest. "All right! I'll change that one. Devon! Devon…listen to me…this is…?"

"Walker!" said Devon still clapping his hands and looking for approval. Such spoiling from his father, Ellie was worried.

"No." John shook his head. "To you, it is Sarah. Sarah, okay? It's Sarah."

"Sarah Walker!" the boy replied. He learnt quickly.

Ellie nodded her approval to both of them and so John put down the photo of Sarah even though Devon tried to pick it up. Ellie handed him the picture and beamed happily when he gazed at it as if it was a big bar of chocolate. He always did like Sarah anyway.

"Devon…who is this?

Ellie was a little concerned at the picture, but not overly so. It was different from how she used to look and she realised it had been a long long time since she had seen this woman. Devon hadn't even met her, yet his eyes immediately recognised her in the photo.

"Wu-Wu!" he made a loud train noise and laughed.

Anna Wu never came back with Morgan and in fact, Ellie hadn't seen her ages, yet why would John have a picture of her.

"I got her a new job." he murmured. Then Ellie understood only too well. He had told her about how the young Anna Wu had beaten up the Jock in the cage and well, he had said the opportunity was too good to pass up. "Okay…now the next ones. Devon...these are people we need to be weary of…okay? They're not bad they're just… mum and dad don't think you should ever really get too close to them."

"Yes, sir!"

Ellie hadn't had any luck with trying to get Devon to stop saying that to John. Yes, he called him dad and he called her mum...but never daddy, or mummy. The "Sir" business was due to the fact that John had called his own father that. One day, he would stop that little habit. She hoped. But for now, let the "men" have their way.

"Good. Here's the first one…who are they?"

It was a picture of Jeff and Lester from the Buy More, obviously taken by someone else on their camera and at a past work bash. The two idiots looked wrecked and Ellie shivered when she saw them. Sensing her discomfort, John touched his palm softly around her neck and leaned in to give her a comforting kiss. She blushed like she always did, but that pleasured warm jolt she always got from his kisses vanished as soon as Devon piqued up.

"Morons!"

"John!! You taught him that?!"

"Ellie, it's the plain and simple facts. Those two are morons and our son doesn't need to know anything more than that about them! It's not as if I told him to call them…" John lowered his voice and whispered. "Ass-wipes! Which is what they are!"

"John Casey, that is completely out of order! We may not like them…but they are not…."

Ellie couldn't help it. Every part of her inside was trying say that it was wrong to teach a three year old to call other people morons, it wasn't polite or pleasant, but she had to agree with John. Jeff and Lester were complete and utter morons.

"Morons!" Devon laughed and then jiggled and squirmed in Ellie's lap in anticipation of the next one. John picked one up and their son smiled again. Ellie loved it when he smiled like that, he looked just like his father.

"Grimy moron!"

Ellie shook her head in dismay.

"He's also known as?" asked John, coaxing the three year old by motioning with his hand.

"Geek!"

"John this isn't a good influence on him!"

"Afraid he'll turn out like the old man?" he asked smirking again.

"I think he already has."

John's deep rumbling laugh couldn't keep her angry. She smiled and then picked one up of herself from the arm of the sofa.

"Mum!" Devon stroked his hand across the picture of Ellie and tugged it out of her grasp before holding it up to his mouth and giving it a big kiss. He then turned round and gave her a real one on the bottom of her chin.

"And this one?"

Devon clapped his hands again and did a strange little dance, motioning his arms in the same manner that Ellie had known from when she was small.

"Uncle Bartowski!"

"Also known as?" asked Ellie, again shooting John a disapproving glance. Casey shrugged his shoulders and moved away to try and tidy up the lounge.

"Uncle Bartowski!"

"No, Devon. It's Chuck. Uncle Chuck…can you say that?"

"Uncle Bartowski!"

"No…Chuck. His name is Chuck."

"Uncle Bartowski!"

"Chuck."

"Uncle Bartowski!"

"CHUCK!"

"UNCLE BARTOWSKI!"

No matter how hard she tried, Ellie could not get her son to refer to her brother by his real name. She had found it absolutely adorable when he first said such a complicated name and at the time she had no objections to him calling Chuck that, but he had to know. Chuck himself had never really liked it and she had seen the attempts he had made, but it was all in vain.

John Casey was a huge influence on his son and Ellie was so proud of that, but there were times when his persona rubbed off on their child a ltitle too much for her liking.

"Dev…" said his father kneeling down in front of them and taking Devon's hand. "It's Chuck. His name is Chuck."

"Geek!"

"No…Chuck."

"Nerd!"

"Chuck."

"Uncle Bartowski!"

John sighed and then shrugged his shoulders.

"I tried." he said, even though Ellie could see that he wasn't that worried about it. Even though Chuck was his brother-in-law, the Colonel had very rarely ever called Chuck by his first name and Devon had picked up on that.

"John…you taught him all this. Can you just get him to call his uncle, Chuck for just once?" Ellie gently sat Devon on the sofa next to her and then after giving him a big kiss and a hug she rose to her feet.

John got up to meet her and snaked his arms around her waist, pulling her into his large bulking frame. Her legs almost gave out beneath her when he planted the most warm and passionate kiss on her lips. She sunk into it, coiling her arms around his neck and running her hands through his hair, moaning pleasurably as her whole body began to tremble with excitement. Even after all these years, John Casey could still reduce her to a quivering mess.

Devon stuck his tongue out in disgust and covered his eyes before letting out a big disgusted "Eeew!!!"

The break of their kiss only happened when the boy scrambled off the sofa and pulled hard on the trouser leg of his father and even at such a young age, Devon Casey had quite a bit of strength in them. The sloping smack sounded when Ellie and John parted but even when Devon continued to tug and pull at his father, they didn't break their loving gaze.

"I'm tired." Ellie said eventually, letting out a yawn. "I'm going to have a shower."

"Need someone to rub your….?"

"I can rub my own back, thank you John."

"I wasn't talking about that." he grinned mischievously. Ellie gasped in shock and gave him a gentle smack on his chest. She pulled away and began to walk towards the bathroom.

"Tidy all this mess up, John! And I would suggest you try and teach your son to call his uncle by his real name."

"Will there be trouble if I don't?" he called out after her. Her laughter lilted like music through the house until the door to the bathroom cut it off.

John then looked down to his son and beamed happily. He knelt down next to him and held out his fist.

"Who is that man in the photo?" he asked again pointing to the geeky grinning Chuck in his Nerd Herder uniform. Devon looked to the bathroom where his mother had gone, then glared at the photo and finally looked up at John with a questioning smile.

"Uncle Bartowski?"

"Atta boy."

Devon grinned as well and knocked his fist against his father's.

"Thus ends the facial recognition test for today. Now, help the old man tidy all this up, or your mum's going to be extremely cross."

"Nah!"

Devon squealed with laughter and ran away to his room, leaving Colonel John Casey with a whole lounge of photos to clear up.

He didn't want to, it looked like too much work, especially after having spent the first day in a long while with his son. He was absolutely shattered, but if he didn't do it, Ellie would be angry.

An idea popped into his head. A plan that would make his beautiful wife forget all about the mess in their house.

He got up and then slowly headed for the bathroom with that same mischievious grin on his face, rubbing his hands with delight.

The end.


End file.
